Eltern und Kunst: Eine Möglichkeit

By the time of his graduation he had acquired a British passport, so he was able to inform his father in a brief note that he intended to settle down in London and look for work as an actor. Changez Chamchawala's reply came by express mail. 'Might as well be a confounded gigolo. It's my belief some devil has got into you and turned your wits. You who have been given so much: do you not feel you owe anything to anyone? To your country? To the memory of your dear mother? To your own mind? Will you spend your life jiggling and preening under bright lights, kissing blonde women under the gaze of strangers who have paid to watch your shame? You are no son of mine, but a ghoul, a hoosh, a demon from hell. An Actor! Answer me this: what am I to tell my friends?'

And beneath a signature, the pathetic, petulant postscript, 'Now that you have your own bad djinni, do not think you will inherit the magic lamp.'

Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses (London: Vintage, 1998 [1988]), 47-48.